Google slams US' ‘radical interventionist' move to force it to sell Chrome

Google on Thursday slammed what it called the US government's “radical interventionist agenda” pushing the tech giant to sell off its Chrome browser.

Calling the Justice Department's filing to a federal judge “staggering,” Google's Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker said the US government “push(ed) a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America's global technology leadership.”

Google's reaction came after the department told the court on Wednesday that requiring Google to divest Chrome would level the playing field for competing search engines.

The US lawyers said in a 23-page document: “Google's ownership and control of Chrome and Android ... poses a significant challenge to effectuate a remedy that aims to unfetter (these) market(s) from anticompetitive conduct.”

Google divesting from Chrome, they said, will “ensure that there remain no practices likely to result in monopolization in the future.”

To address these challenges, the US said: "Google must divest Chrome, which has “fortified (Google's) dominance ... so that rivals may pursue distribution partnerships that this realit(y) of control prevents."

The US' latest move comes after an August ruling declaring the company a monopoly in the search market. It also follows a 2020 landmark lawsuit accusing Google of maintaining dominance in the general search market through high barriers to entry and a self-reinforcing feedback loop. The court concluded that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits monopolistic practices.

Walker, the Google legal officer, said the department's “wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision.”

“It would break a range of Google products – even beyond Search – that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives,” he warned.

Launched in 2008, Chrome collects data that Google uses to target ads.

“To remedy these harms … requires Google to divest Chrome, which will permanently stop Google's control of this critical search access point and allow rival search engines the ability to access the browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet,” said the department.

The department also proposed that Google be barred from forming exclusionary agreements with third parties such as Apple and Samsung.

It proposed that these remedies remain in place for 10 years.

Additionally, the filing suggests Google be required to submit a monthly report to a technical committee detailing any changes to its search text ads auction.